This is a movie about faith
The movie starts like this
Black and white images, intriguing subtitles (about Wallace's report on meteorites), mysterious and profound music. I have used everything that can be used. At that time, it was not popular to sit in a 4D rocking chair to watch movies. What else could you ask the director to do?
The first shot in the film that caught my eye, the movement of the water glass was accompanied by the roar of the rails. The story begins in this humble cottage.
The stalker disregarded his wife's objections and abandoned his daughter and wife, and went his own way to sneak. His wife fell to the ground in pain and wept, accompanied by the sound of the train tracks, "Frenzy, mad, mad, mad...". "For me, every place is a prison." - Stalker, imagine what a dark life he leads. It feels like there are railroad tracks outside this small shabby house, just like the Soviet Union, the industrial powerhouse I imagined.
Then came the lonely writer, I have to say I thought he was a mathematician at first, this gentleman was chatting and laughing with a beautiful and elegant lady, he didn't seem to be very romantic, he thought that a constant law made the world The loneliness is unbearable. He does not believe that there is a Bermuda triangle. There are only angles A, B, and C, which form an ABC triangle.
Then the professor appeared. The three met in the bar. The professor and the writer chatted about the truth. It seemed that they were not speculative. Before the stalker took it away, he still explained his wife's affairs to the boss, and it could be seen that he was still concerned.
That's how the three of them sneaked off and set off to that mysterious and unpredictable area. Dodging many obstacles along the way, I have to say that the industrial atmosphere of this place is too strong, it is also a giant chimney, and it is the roar of trains. There is no suspense in this plot. The three successfully got out of the blockade and drove a small broken car to their destination.
After a strange music, the car slowly stopped. This is the director's magic touch. The color of the picture changes, and the world instantly becomes colorful. Then there's a long shot, and it's good to enjoy it slowly. The stalker couldn't wait to run to embrace nature at this time. A worm crawled and crawled on his hand. As soon as he came to the area, the stalker seemed to be a lot happier. He enjoyed this job and got the little broken car back. The little broken car drifted away with the disappearance of the sound of the rails.
Next is repeated discussions and debates, about life, about happiness, about truth, and the journey of exploration of three people with different values. These three roles can be regarded as losers in society. Writers chatter, professors have other ideas, and stalkers are good at tricks. In the end, no one entered the room where the wish could come true. The nuclear bomb was discarded, and then there was a background sound of "Crazy gallop, mad gallop, mad gallop...". The trio eventually returned to the bar with a dog. In the middle section, many viewers said it was boring. In fact, you can notice that some scenes in the movie are in black and white. For example, when the stalker is lying on the ground and dreaming, there are poems and narration. This approach is used in many movies. The three returned to the starting point and the screen turned black and white again. Then the stalker and his wife said that they moved to the district. The district was a colorful world in the previous expression, but the voice at the end of the film, "running, running wild, running wild, running wild..." appeared again. Yeah, it's really annoying.
Several characters in the play are very successful. Scientists, writers, stalkers, stalkers' wives, everyone has their own beliefs or principles they believe in. It's just that the starting point is different, which makes them make different choices on the road of life, and their beliefs make them all yearn for that room, even if life has been destroyed, they still have hope.
The final picture of the film returns to color, poetry, pictures, and background sounds appear.
These three elements correspond to the opening
Poetry as Narration: Poetry
Picture: The little girl's eyes (belief), the cup is displaced, the table shakes violently
Sound: The roar of the railroad tracks (industrial civilization), and a song, it should be "Ode to Joy", the expression of music is related to freedom and equality.
The director used the technique of leaving blank space, and the film ended.
"Contemporary popular culture, the "prosthetic civilization" that pleases consumers, will harm our souls, prevent people from pursuing the fundamental meaning of their own existence, and prevent people from understanding the self as a spiritual existence." - "Carving Time"
This movie is more like Tarkovsky walking in his own way in pursuit of truth.
I want to talk about the ending picture here. Some viewers think that the little girl in the play has a special ability to move the water glass. I don't agree with it. The picture does not clearly indicate this, the movement of the glass corresponding to the opening, and the sound effects, are more like the roar of the train.
I watched Tarkovsky's "Stalker" first, and then watched "The Fantastic Drift of the Young Pi" directed by Ang Lee. The latter did not bring me too many surprises, maybe the downloaded version was clear. The degree is not high, not as shocking as watching a movie in a movie theater. I feel that Ang Lee's technique was used by Tarkovsky. Some people say that the ending is somewhat similar to Blade Runner 2049. As a work in 1979, Tarkovsky is quite advanced. At the end, nothing seems to be expressed, and it seems to have told the audience everything.
"When one comes into contact with a masterpiece, one hears the call that the artist himself heard in his creation. Once the work has established a connection with the viewer, the viewer experiences a sublime sense of spiritual purification." - This is Tarkov What Sky wrote in "Sculpting Time," and in "Stalker," he did it.
Tarkovsky's cinematography is one of a kind. As a hall-level director, the application of color in "Stalker" and the water glass that swayed to the ground, compared with the alternation of black and white and color images in "Schindler's List", the spinning top at the end of "Inception", I really don't know where it went. It's a pity that people only watched "Inception" and exclaimed that it was a masterpiece, and "Schindler's List" was praised to the sky. These are the leftovers of the old tower played in the last century.
View more about Stalker reviews
